Seeing is believing, as the Lakers take an unreal victory in Brooklyn

(A MAMBINO live report from Brooklyn for the Nets-Lakers game last night)

"Unreal. Just...unreal."

I slumped back in my seat time after time, stunned at the game that was taking place in front of me. Quarter after quarter, the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers continued to shake convention in a contest that couldn't be any less believable. Still, I whispered in amazement for 48 minutes, sometimes with a smile on my face and others with a bewildered scowl, hands atop my head.

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Brooklyn Nets in their first visit to the Barclays Center last night, 92-83, in a game the Lakers had to have, Brooklyn couldn't have tried harder to give away and ultimately, Pau Gasol would love to have back.

The Barclays Center is merely a 30-minute train ride away from my apartment. This gigantic iron behemoth is brilliantly located in the middle of New York's second most heralded borough, crossing almost a dozen subway lines and the Long Island Railroad. It stands out from the surrounding environ of a typical urban center, as if Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum lost the war on July 4th and a spaceship landed in the middle of the BK. The Barclays Center is convenient, marvelous, and most importantly, thanks to its NBA tenants, cheap.

Despite a move out of the swamp in New Jersey to a brilliant, shining, $1 billion dollar arena, the now Brooklyn Nets are struggling to find their place in NYC. Attendance is up to 16th this season, a solid upward trend from finishing no better than 25th in crowd support since 2009. However, like with any expansion or relocation franchise, it's been difficult to find a fervent, dedicated fan base when a team has little tradition, few marketable stars, and generations of followers tied to another organization. New Yorkers are still very dedicated to their beloved Knicks, and the ticket price to see the now contending Bockers is sky high. For the playoff-bound Nets? There's a far smaller mortgage to be paid for attending a game in Brooklyn. Knowing all of this before showing up to Barclays tonight, I shouldn't have been so surprised by the swath of Lakers fans in front of me.

Still, even high fives from strangers clad in Lakers hats and headbands couldn't distract me from the task at hand--defeating the then 28-19 Brooklyn Nets. LA came into the game short-staffed, with Dwight Howard missing his second consecutive game due to a re-aggravated shoulder injury and Metta World Peace due to a bogus suspension for "punching" Brandon Knight during Sunday's Pistons game. Chief amongst my concerns were how anyone would be able to check the 6'7" Joe Johnson, if Reggie Evans would now gobble up 25 boards instead of 16 now that Dwight was ruled out and if Steves Nash and Blake would just spot Deron Williams the 20 he would eventually score.

Amazingly--unreal-ly--this never came to pass.

(Read the rest at Silver Screen and Roll after the jump)

Make or Break Month: What Are the Lakers Up Against in February?

(My newest from Silver Screen & Roll)

Thirty-six games is all that stands between the Los Angeles Lakers and either a merely disappointing season or one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

As our own Drew Garrison wrote yesterday, this Lakers team simply can't be trusted with your emotions; like a mercurial adolescent, there's little indication of which squad will show its face night to night, quarter to quarter, minute to minute. It's been a season of teases for the Lakers and their fans, vacillating wildly between the gutty, persistent crew that defeated the best team in the West, the one that, just days later, lost to the worst team in the West in a ridiculous 540 second meltdown.

Regardless of which way you sway with this Lakers team--having written them off or blindly hoping for a miracle stretch run--there's little doubt that by the middle of February we should all know there this team is headed in April.

The next 28 days are pivotal for not just the Lakers, but of course for their main competitors for the bottom two spots on the Western Conference playoffs bracket. The Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks remain in a five-team scrum for the "honor" of facing destruction via superhuman Oklahoma City Avengers Thunder squad or a methodical, Batman-esque deconstruction by the San Antonio Spurs.

Just to be clear about what exactly the Lakers are facing this month, let's break down team-by-team the four weeks of February:

Peep the rest after the jump!

Looking Up In the Standings: How the Lakers Can Make the Postseason

My latest from Silver Screen and Roll. Dig it? Dig it. 

Will the Lakers win the championship? Will the Lakers win the Western Conference? Will the Lakers have home court advantage in the postseason? Will the Lakers be able to win four series in a row on the road?

Will the Lakers make the playoffs? 

There's been a sad, slow degenerating line of questions toppling from August of last year to late January. The once title-tilted Lakers now find themselves in a nightly quest to beat anyone, let alone the class of the NBA.

LA finds itself in an unfamiliar spot: looking up in the standings and finding 11 teams ahead of them. The Western Conference has thus far shaken itself into several different categories: at the top is the foursome of the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers. Each of these teams have established themselves as mid-season title contenders, some with more weaknesses than others. In the second tier lies the Golden State Warriors experiencing a rare surge of on-court success, as well as the Denver Nuggets rebounding after a slow start.

After those six? It's a six-team scrum for the last two spots. There's little doubt that barring a cataclysmic injury (or set of injuries), five of the top six teams will make the playoffs (the only pause comes in the form of the Warriors, who are playing--and more specifically, defending--way beyond expectations, and have seen only a healthy Stephen Curry thus far). This leaves the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets (both currently in the top 8), Portland Trailblazers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks all separated by just 5 games in the standings.

Last season, prorated for a full, 82 game schedule, the eighth seeded Jazz won 45 games at a .545 winning percentage. To get to that shockingly lofty plateau, the Lakers would have to go 28-13 in their last 41 contests, a .683 winning percentage. Putting that in perspective, the Lakers be on track for a 56-26 if they were winning at that clip. At this point, that record is nearly mathematically impossible.

LA has 19 home games compared to just 23 road games left, including 23 against teams .500 or better. It's not a particularly favorable schedule from here on out, but they've also played the league's 10th toughest schedule thus far according to ESPN.com. Moreover, out of all the teams they're fighting for the bottom two seeds with, they have the worst home to road game ratio.

In a sentence? This won't be easy. In another? They'll need some help. Let's take a look at what the other Western Conference third-class citizens are facing going forward into the second half of the season, and what, if anything, behooves our guys in the purple & gold:

Check the rest out after the jump at SS&R

THE GREAT PODBINO, Episode #5

The latest PODBINO, courtesy of El Miz, Bockerknockers and myself talking....Lakers. Get ready for a full 45 minutes of defeatist talk and heavy drinking.

Dwight and Pau Out "Indefinitely": What Do the Lakers Do Now?

(My latest from Silver Screen & Roll. Check it!)

In a season that's becoming progressively bleaker by the day, could today be the death blow to a prospective championship season on life support?

All within the last 24 hours, three Lakers big men toppled towards the hardwood, as if they were gigantic dominoes being flicked by the oversized pincer of the injury bug. Following yesterday's game against the Denver Nuggets, reserve forward-center Jordan Hill added to his already thick medical folder with a torn hip muscle that will cause him to miss at least a week of action.

That wasn't all: more apparent in Sunday's contest was the bloody injury to Pau Gasol. At the time, announcers Bill McDonald and Stu Lantz postulated he had suffered a broken nose from a flailing JaVale McGee elbow (is there any other kind?). Today, news came down that Gasol's nose was merely lacerated, but the real damage came from within--the Spaniard had been concussed, and would miss at least the next two games.

Surprisingly, the most devastating news of the day was yet to come. Dwight Howard, who sprained his shoulder on Friday in a loss against the Clippers, had re-aggravated the injury against the Nuggs and was noticeably wincing during the game. An examination afterwards revealed that Howard was playing with a torn labrum in his right shoulder, which led the team to list the center out "indefinitely". Later in the day, Dwight was adamant that he wouldn't need surgery to correct the injury, but rather just rehabilitation. Either way, the Lakers' starting center would be out at least one week, if not more if surgery is deemed necessary. It seems impossible, but Howard's cartoonishly gigantic shoulders weren't even exempt from a storm of health problems for the Lakers' frontline.

It's not that all of these injuries are that devastating in the short-term--all of them call for the Lakers' bigs to miss no more than two to five games. However, it's the nature of the injuries that could prolong the players' absences for a serious stretch of time. Hill's latest boo-boo is the nineteenth of the season, seemingly. So far, the former Wildcat has been sidelined with a herniated disc and a sprained ankle. Though a hip injury is another short-term problem, it's obvious at this point that Hill is just an injury-prone player. Gasol's concussion calls for just a two-game leave, but concussions can range from temporary setbacks to lifelong disabilities. It's improbable that Pau could be done for the season or anything close to that, but there's no telling how he'll respond in the coming days. Howard's shoulder is another wild card--though he's insisted that surgery isn't an option, labrum tears can be assuaged by anything ranging from rehabilitation to invasive surgery, depending on how large the tear. For now, he's saying that this is just a rest and strengthening process, but again, the pervasive cloud of uncertainty rolls over the Lakers.

(Read on after the jump)

Examining the Lakers Back-Up Point Guards: Who Will Be Nash's Understudy?

(Copped from my Silver Screen & Roll piece yesterday. Dig it!)

Did you know Steve Nash is a Laker?

It's been five and a half months since he stunned the hoops world and signed with his once-upon-a-time rival Lakers. It's been almost two months since Portland point guard Damian Lillard assassinated his fibula with a perfectly placed knee. After all the anticipation, Steve Nash will finally return to the court, presumably on Christmas day against the New York Knicks. Though he's played in eight preseason contests, the point guard has started a scant two games this season, totaling 50 minutes and resulting in zero wins. Steve Nash has been a Laker since July, but he's appeared so little on the court in a Lakers uniform, it's still shocking to see him in purple and gold. He's only missed 24 games, but it feels so much longer than that. Since Nash has been out, the Lakers are on their third coach, have played under-.500 ball and of course, started three different players at point guard.

Nash's three understudies have been the punctuation mark on the roaring sentiment that a competent starting point guard is needed to run Mike D'Antoni's system. Lakers fans have gotten far more time than expected to observe and dissect the Lakers back-up point guards, and the grades are in: none of them are particularly gifted. Overall, anyway.

(Peep the rest over at SS&R)

Knicks/Lakers: A Season of Unsettling Dichotomy

A historic NBA franchise in the middle of a prime American media market. A set of mismatched players thrown together with little regard for how well they may or may not play with one another. Yearly turnover of personnel becoming more and more turbulent. Overpriced veterans and supposed superstars who cannot become a greater sum than their individual parts. Management beleaguered by a wide, knowledgeable and perhaps sometimes overly passionate fan base. Those same fervent followers pressing the panic button at a moment's notice, whether it be warranted or not. A team consistently grounding to new lows and disappointing fans in new, creative and sadistic ways. Expectations failed, season settling into jeopardy, everyone worried.

A historic NBA franchise in the middle of a prime American media market. A set of underrated players who were specifically put together to best build on the strengths of their franchise player. A roster that has built continuity after years of tumult. Cagey veterans help an emerging superstar finally reach his potential, with a set of improperly valued players becoming a greater sum than its individual parts. Management, no matter how shrewd its trades and wily it's moves, will always be beleaguered by a wide, knowledgeable and perhaps sometimes overly passionate fan base. Those same fervent followers cautiously buying in on an extraordinary start to the season. A team coming together, morphing into the class of the league. Expectations already surpassed, season becoming quickly extraordinary, everyone jubilant.


Of course, we're talking about the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

But how is it that two descriptions that would fit both teams like a fine Pat Riley suit now has flipped the script? The usually melodramatic Knickerbockers have become the respectable, heady team of veterans who win with defense, passing and patience. The usually steady Lakers have become a team in crisis, with it's highly paid imports failing to bring W's to the game log. It seems that the two franchises have suddenly switched places, and both fan bases don't really know how to handle the rapid transformation. Knicks fans are looking at their 16-5 squad with much trepidation. They are dubious to accept Carmelo as the MVP candidate he looks to be and the squad's reliance on a group of basketball geriatrics that are creating wins and melding an otherwise unwieldy team of boneheads. Lakers fans are conversely confused at how terrible a 9-13 team full of seeming superstars and solid contributors could be so incredibly awful. Overall, there's a real lack of acceptance that perhaps yes, the Lakers could be this terrible and yes, the Knicks could be this good.

(Read on at Silver Screen and Roll!)

How did the LA Lakers lose in Cleveland last night?

(Copped from my Silver Screen and Roll  game recap)

Going back to Silver Screen and Roll's preseason predictions for the 2012-2013 season, most of us here were concerned with several different issues; a few of us pointed to team health, some asked questions about the coaching staff and a couple writers wondered aloud if the team's pieces were the right fit.


No one--not a single person on this blog, nor many fans out there--thought that the problem would be effort.


The team's early season slump was sent to an all-new low tonight, when the now 5-17 Cleveland Cavaliers thumped the Los Angeles Lakers 100-94 in a game that wasn't nearly as close as it ended.

The Cavs played a modest game to say the least. On the offensive side of the ball, they only shot 44% and a Howard-ian 57% from the stripe. After throwing down a ridiculous 54 first half points, Cleveland was stunningly mediocre for most of the rest of the game, including an unbelievable seven minute stretch at the beginning of the third quarter in which they made exactly one field goal. Part of the reason was a totally impotent bench that without Tyler Zeller's six points, would have gotten completely skunked. Omri Casspi, Jeremy Pargo and Daniel Gibson bricked all nine of their combined shots in an effort that would have left last year's Lakers bench shaking their heads in disbelief.


Amazingly, the Cavaliers caught only eight offensive boards, which is two more than Anderson Varejao's season average. On the whole, the team was crushed by the Lakers' rebounding edge, ceding 11 more to LA, 15 of which were on the offensive end. Cleveland's defense wasn't sterling either, with the squad sending the Lakers to the stripe 40 times. In terms of field goals, the Cavs allowed 54 second-half points to the Show after just 39 in the first half. Finally, they did a terrible job coaxing Kobe Bryant into bad shots, as the Mamba hit 16 of 28 for 42 points.


The Cavs did have a couple of bright spots however, which came from predictable places. Kyrie Irving had a timely return tonight, coming back from injury to drop an amazing 28/6/11 on the Lakers in a seeming 1-on-1 duel with Kobe Bryant. C.J. Miles somehow dropped 28 points, looking like a genuine starter rather than a scrap heap pick-up. Anderson Varejao continued to make his case for the Eastern Conference All-Star team with a fantastic 20 points, 9 boards and 5 assists. However, the rest of the team was a virtual offensive wasteland, combining for 24 points split amongst seven players.


Looking at all those statistics, how could the Lakers have possibly lost this game?

(Check out the rest of the piece over at SS&R!)

Pau Gasol Trade Scenarios: Is It Even Possible?

(Doing some work for Silver Screen and Roll - check it!)

At first there were whispers. And then, after a fashion, the whispers turned to chatter. The chatter soon turned into a dull roar and now we're into a full-on, Kevin Garnett primal scream: trade Pau Gasol.

The 2011 2nd Team All-NBAer hasn't helped matters much: since Mike D'Antoni took over, Pau is averaging 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, to go along with .388 shooting and a woeful 64% from the charity stripe. Those stats are fine if you're Jason Kidd or Kurt Thomas--not so much when you're the 9th highest-paid player in the league. Gasol's numbers have followed a frightening trend from the end of the 2010 playoffs, in which the hardened, vengeance-driven warrior was one of the driving forces behind an epic Game 7 victory over the Celtics in the Finals (just...sit on that one for a minute Lakers fans. All be well).

However, as we've covered extensively on this blog, and even further than that in just about any comments section, the most glaring reason behind Pau trade whispers has been his shocking lack of energy on both ends of the floor. Whether it's been the coaching changes, lack of managerial or fan support, system demands or perhaps just plain old injury, Gasol has lacked much of the aggression and effort Los Angeles fell in love with in 2008. He's slow to rotate on pick and roll defense, as well as perimeter closeouts, and has been shockingly sedentary finishing around the rim offensively. More importantly, the Lakers aren't winning. With the team sitting at 8-9, Pau's play hasn't been the main thrust behind an under-.500 record, but when the team is losing, everything is magnified and there's going to be a scapegoat. Pau, for the moment, seems to be that guy.

The obvious solution here? The once unthinkable: trade Pau Gasol.The question is where? And for whom?

(Read on here) 

THE GREAT PODBINO Episode #3

We're back with THE GREAT PODBINO, Episode #3!

Join El Miz, BockerKnocker and myself, along with the pro cutting of Producer Mags, as we navigate along the waters of the early season NBA. In Ep. 3, we'll give our Fact or Fiction as to the best records in the league--Memphis, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Miami--as well as some unexpected win-loss dockets.

And of course, some substantial Knicks and Lakers chatter.

Check it!

Pau Gasol for Amar'e Stoudemire? Pure Fiction

From: Andrew Hova

To: KOBEsh

Date: 8:21 pm, November 27th, 2012

Subject: Amar'e for Gasol? Oh please make it sooo

This was an e-mail I received last night as I got off of a plane. In a panic, my fingers couldn't light up Twitter fast enough. I was stricken with my worst fear come to light--not so much that the Lakers were close to trading Gasol, but rather that New York Knick Amar'e Stoudemire would be the quarry. 

I searched and searched, but all I saw was speculation. There weren't any solid reports, just rumors floating around that a swap of the two disaffected power forwards could be a possible deal going forward. Both men aren't entirely happy in their current environments and roles on their current squads, and more importantly, have largely underperformed the last year and a half. Switching the two wouldn't be an entirely far-fetched idea, based on various factors of their ages, contracts and personnel redundancies on the Lakers and Knicks, respectively.

That being said, there isn't a scenario where this trade would be anything but an outright disaster for the Lakers.

Instant Trade Analysis: Mike D'Antoni to the Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers get: Mike D'Antoni

Mike D'Antoni gets: 3 years, $12 million (fourth year team option), a chance at redemption

Phil Jackson gets: A bowl of regret

Just three days removed from the last surprise development in LA, the Lakers decided not to hold back on the next one. The speculation throughout the weekend was that the recently fired Mike Brown would be replaced by 11-time NBA Champion head coach Phil Jackson. In the 11th hour, the front office shifted weight almost entirely the other way, it would seem, as they went out and signed former Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni. Whoa.

For many Lakers fans, myself included, we were waiting for an iPad and instead got a Nook Color. In the end, both could reach the same result, but ultimately you're not getting the product you want.

There's two seperate schools of thought on the hire right now, either round approval or damning criticism. D'Antoni has always been a polarizing figure in both of his head coaching stints and his time in LA won't be any different. The biggest knock on MDA is his alleged indifference to defense, which was punctuated by the "Seven Seconds or Less" style and pace at which his Phoenix teams played. Led by current Laker Steve Nash, D'Antoni's offensive philosophy counted on his squads getting up the floor as quick as possible, relying on his point guards propensity on the fast break and versatile wing players' ability to finish at the rack or make long jumpers with no more than 17 seconds left on the shot clock. Essentially, they put up the rock as much as they could and let the defense sort itself out. Not exactly how Dr. Naismith wrote it up, but then again he used a peach basket for a hoop. And he was Canadian. Can't trust him.

Whether you hated it or not, there's no denying that the MDA Suns were one of the most exciting teams to come along in two decades of NBA basketball. They scored at a high rate and did so with style, leaving the viewer just as breathless as the athletes that raced up the court just in time to catch a perfect lob from the Nash's hands. However, the price of such a highly touted scoring binge was seemingly the defense. Whether or not he actually stressed defense or spent any time coaching it during practices (which has been subject to much dispute), Mike's squads have never been anything more than middling defensively. Here's where MDA-led (full season) squads have ranked amongst the league in defensive efficiency, which is points per 100 possessions:

Instant Trade Reaction: Mike Brown to the Unemployment Office

Los Angeles Lakers get: A new coach (TBD)

Mike Brown gets: A pink slip

In what's been the seventh or eighth shocking announcement from El Segundo in the past twelve months, the Los Angeles Lakers dismissed head coach Mike Brown this morning, just five games into the NBA season. After a 1-4 record, a winless preseason and a gentlemen's sweep at the end of the 2012 season at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the front office decided that Brown simply wasn't up to the challenge of making the Lakers into a title contender.

Ultimately, the main question stemming out of this is: was this the right decision, or a hasty panic move?

Sadly for Brown, this was the right move. I've written time and time again that the Lakers' now former head coach needed time to implement his offense and ultimately gain the team's trust. What I overlooked was that perhaps he never had his team's respect in the first place.

Most of the reasons I've preached patience is because nearly every step of the way is because Brown's had the odds stacked up against him ever since he took the job almost a year and a half ago. The list includes, but isn't limited to:

• A lockout that restricted contact with players the entire 2011 summer and into November, when the season was reinstated
• The Veto, which stunted the chemistry of the team, Pau Gasol's early performance and ultimately sent Lamar Odom packing
• A two-week shortened training camp
• A compacted regular season, that gave his team only a handful of practices for most of the season
• Midseason trades for Ramon Sessions and Jordan Hill, while exporting veteran Derek Fisher
• Integrating in two superstars in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, and several new role players
• Coaching a new offense in a training camp that largely featured a limited Howard and an injured Kobe Bryant 
• Losing Steve Nash to injury just two games into the season

The Worst NBA Team You've Seen So Far

(Yesterday, I took a poll from the MAMBINO crew asking who the worst team they've seen this year was. The answers I got were the following two teams that have performed the most joyless form of basketball. I happened to agree whole-heartedly. And wept uncontrollably. Tears of blood.)

The Detroit Pistons


There's no doubt in my mind that the 0-5 Pistons are the worst squad in the league, even this early in the season. Only one player has registered a double double, which would be burgeoning star Greg Monroe. More impressively, one of those was actually a triple-double, a career first. Against the lowly Sacramento Kings. In a Detroit loss. But other than that, he's getting zero help; no one else on the team has registered more than 10 rebounds or scored more than 20 points. In fact, the team has shot just 43% over five games and ranks 28th in points per 100 possessions.

The rest of the starters are truly the unit that's sinking the Pistons. Second year man Brandon Knight has a really nice looking stroke, but that's it, quite frankly. He's only got 2 assists to every turnover he commits, and not even that can truly capture how poorly he sets up his teammates for quality shots. He's a wretched shooter in general, which is super duper convenient for the Pistons, considering he's taking 10 shots a night and is Monroe's main pick and roll partner. His backcourt mate Rodney Stuckey has been especially terrible in a nightmare first week for the Pistons. Detroit's starting shooting guard is 8 for 46 to start the year, a staggering 17% from the field. But it's not like Stuckey is shooting poorly because he hasn't made a three pointer or is just taking long, contested two-point shots. He's shooting less than 20% from every single area on the floor. Good to know he's not discriminating against the hardwood. Luckily for Stuckey, he still has a 3:1 assist to turnover ration and is still making free throws (84% on 16 shots), so at least he's doing the right things to...help his team lose.

In Defense of Mike Brown: What's Wrong with the Early-Season Los Angeles Lakers

(MAMBINO piece on the superb Lakers blog, Silver Screen and Roll. Check it!)

''I don't know if they will grasp it all,'' Jackson said the other day. ''Everything takes time and everything is instinctual. A lot of what you do you can't emulate or copy. You can't put it back in the same order you did it before. I may not introduce any of the usual stuff to the team until it's the right time. And it may not be the right time for four or five months."--The New York Times, October 31st, 1999

Before the seven more NBA Finals appearances and five more gold trophies adorning Dr. Jerry Buss' office space, Chicago Bulls maestro Phil Jackson came into Los Angeles charged with the task of making a talented, but underachieving Lakers team into a champion. He would install Tex Winters' vaunted triangle offense into L.A.'s offensive schemes, a conceptual scoring attack that even now (after 11 titles) some people regard as a form of smoke and mirrors witchcraft (one of Jackson's assistants on the Lakers, Brian Shaw, recounted last year to SI.com's Ian Thompsen "When I go out on head-coaching interviews and if I mention the word 'triangle,' it makes general managers and owners cringe. They don't want to hear about the triangle offense, they don't want to hear about Phil Jackson").

Ever undeterred, Jackson preached patience, and that's what he got. The 1999-2000 Lakers justified this attitude, and shot out of the gate, going 15-5 in November and along with his extraordinary past success in Chicago, captured the confidence of the city and Lakers Nation.

Mike Brown doesn't have Phil Jackson's record of success. The most the two have in common is coaching a 60-win team, appearing in the NBA Finals and their one Coach of the Year trophy apiece. What they do share is the journey of getting a team of underachieving superstars to buy into an intricate new system. For Jackson, it was the aforementioned triangle offense and relying on the team not to adhere to a certain set of plays, but rather to collectively grow within themselves a set of instincts that would get them open shots. For Brown, he's asking a team of veterans to buy not only into a complex Princeton offense, but also a tough defensive scheme that he only spoke of in theory, not in actual practice last season. Patience, as with Phil Jackson, has been preached by not just the coaching staff, but also by the team. 

Read more over at Silver Screen and Roll

MAMBINO's NBA Finals Pick

(Part of this is lifted from the Silver Screen and Roll crew's season prediction roundtable post. Check it out when you have the time!)

NBA Finals Pick: Los Angeles Lakers...and Miami Heat
 

Even as what would amount to a 51 win team (prorated over a 82 game season), the Lakers were still very middling last year. They needed to get vastly better on both ends of the court if they wanted to compete for a Western Conference Finals berth, much less a NBA title shot...which they very well may have done. 

Defensively, I expect the Lakers to improve leaps and bounds immediately with Dwight Howard on the court. As I detailed yesterday in MAMBINO's Defensive Player of the Year prediction, D12's impact on the team should be stark. In his few games of preseason action, there was such a canyon-like difference on his activity versus Andrew Bynum's that, paired with how much better he made mediocre defensive players in Orlando, it's easy to think that LA's defense will be suffocating. Offensively, the team could take months to adjust to one another with a new system and point guard, but over that stretch I can see the defense making up for the confusion on the scoring end.

The key for the Lakers was getting to the Finals; Oklahoma City was the most troublesome matchup for LA, especially with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins able to give Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard the most one-on-one trouble as any duo in the league. However, with the Harden trade, I feel like the Lakers are much better suited not only offensively without his defense on Kobe, but also defensively in regards to staying in front of only two of the best 20 players in the league, rather than three. It's not a forgone conclusion that the Lakers can get past OKC--how can you underestimate Durant and Westbrook?--but the prospects just got a lot better. 

Can They Make it Work? -- Los Angeles Lakers Season Preview

That's some star power.

Starting Five: PG Steve Nash, SG Kobe Bryant, SF Metta World Peace, PF Pau Gasol, C Dwight Howard

Key Bench Players: PG Steve Blakers, PG Chris Duhon, SG Jodie Meeks, F Antawn Jamison, PF/C Jordan Hill

Notable offseason additions: Everyone good in the NBA, PG Steve Nash, PG Chris Duhon, SG Jodie Meeks, F Antawn Jamison, F Earl Clark, C Dwight Howard

Offseason subtractions: C Andrew Bynum, PG Ramon Sessions, G Christian Eyenga,  SF Matt Barnes, PF Josh McRoberts

Just writing the starting lineup gave me chills.

The 2012 season concluded with the following assertions as a near certainty: the re-signing of PG Ramon Sessions, the loss of F/C Jordan Hill to free agency, the amnesty cut of the underperforming Metta World Peace, an inevitable trade of the high-priced Pau Gasol and a high-priced extension of Andrew Bynum. It seemed that this era of Lakers basketball was over, and a new one, whatever trajectory it might take, was ready to begin its course.

None of that happened.

In a flurry of trades and signings over a month-long period, the Los Angeles Lakers went from the Kobe Bryant non-contending sideshow to a favorite for the NBA title. GM Mitch Kupchak and VP of Player Personnel Jim Buss saw every hole the Lakers had, and plugged them seemingly with options out of the fantasy basketball playbook. There's little more the front office could have done for the team in any sort of pragmatic fashion. The adjective I most associate with LA's offseason is...silly. All of this is just...silly. 

Kobe Bryant and the Overprotective Lakers Fanbase

(This is an excerpt from my latest post on the best Lakers blog out there, Silver Screen and Roll. Check it out!)

There isn't a Lakers topic more difficult to write about than Kobe Bryant. His depth both as a player and a person is far more vast than any one post or discussion could adequately cover. On the court, he's so far entrenched in a team's offense and defense in that it's extremely difficult to assess just how positively or negatively he affects a team's performance. No matter what type of negative statistical spin some writers want to assign him or how much idiomatic praise other want to heap on him, the beauty of Kobe's game is that the best way to assess the man is simply to watch him play basketball.

Off the court, Bryant is just a polarizing. He's one of the most instantly recognizable figures the world over, and yet there's so much about him shrouded in mystery. There have been hundreds of Kobe interviews over his 16 year career and literally thousands of minutes of on-screen airtime, and yet, we still spout responses like "It's hard to know how Kobe will react". He's an extremely intelligent man who perhaps by design constantly holds back something from the audience. Not to sound too dramatic, but Kobe is both a person we know all too well and yet not at all.

For Lakers fans, it's hard not to love Kobe despite this dichotomy. He's played in 14 All-Star games, seven NBA Finals, won five titles and been on the court for more minutes than just 16 men in league history. Despite all of his experience, Kobe is still universally recognized as the hardest working player in the NBA, never taking a night off and playing every single game like it were the playoffs. Bryant's "clutchness" or aptitude in taking the last shot of the game has been much maligned as of late, but in the latest 2011-2012 NBA GM survey, Kobe was voted the best in that situation by a landslide. Bill Simmons, one of the most recognized and visible Lakers haters out there, has written that Kobe is one of the top 10 players ever to live. Not that Simmons is the end-all, be-all of deciding who is great or not, but it certainly is telling of how the general population feels about Bryant. On the whole, Kobe is one of the most popular entertainers on the planet.

So why is it that Lakers Nation feels he's still one of the most hated in the game?

Read on at SS&R...

Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant? Who has had the better career?

It's no secret that THE GREAT MAMBINO features a number of Simmons disciples here. We drink the Kool-Aid, heavily so, and listen to the musings of a man who spends an impossible amount of time thinking about basketball as a mere hobby.

Of course, with a false prophet, you've got to have the good book. And of course, in this sacriligious perversion of an analogy, the bible is The Book of Basketball. For the uninitiated, Simmons wrote a mammoth 700 page dissertation, the premise of which was that the Basketball Hall of Fame should be organized into a pyramid. In this concept, Simmons sets 96 players into five groupings, moving numerically upwards from several-time All-Stars, to the immortals of the NBA. In other words, Bill found a neat, clean (and profitable) way to rank the greatest ballers of all-time from bottom to top, with justifications, disguised as chapters, for each man.

It shouldn't surprise any loyal reader of MAMBINO that we'd naturally gravitate towards the particular ranking of one Kobe Bean Bryant. Simmons begrudgingly respects Kobe, though every part of his green and white being is dead set against ever truly liking the Black Mamba. Thus, when I read the updated paperback rankings in 2010 after the Lakers' 16th championship, I was surprised to see that Kobe had been elevated from the 16th spot, all the way to number 8. Just behind Tim Duncan.

And thus the debate started. While I have the utmost respect for Tim Duncan, who rightly wears the Barkley-ian badge of "Best Power Forward Ever" proudly upon his lean shoulder, I simply don't believe that he could ever outrank Kobe on the pyramid. The King, an infrequent contributor to MAMBINO and Boston-area scumbag, heartily disagrees.

This debate raged throughout the playoffs, and as both men were unceremoniously dumped from contention (is there any other way?), the stage was set for a late-August post where we scrap for any reason at all to talk about basketball. So here it is: Kobe or Duncan? Who has had the better career?

How could the Lakers NOT Win the NBA Title?

For the past few weeks, I've been a part of a series of Lakers roundtable posts by the fine folks over at Silver Screen & Roll. In the long, droning pace that's the NBA offseason, we've debated a number of subjects, but lately focusing on what could hinder this glamorous All-Star-laden starting five from doing anything besides parading down Figueroa in June. Here they are, aggregated and expanded upon. Check it out!

What's the biggest factor that could prevents the Lakers from winning a title this season?

Injuries. Plain and simple.

As I ran down a couple weeks ago, you really can't consider the Lakers the clear favorites for the Western Conference because quite frankly, there's too many variables before this famed new starting five even hits the hardwood together. This team's potential is vast; not just as a regular season juggernaut, but as a historically unprecedented vehicle for postseason glory. Thus, my prediction for their current standings had nothing to do with what I think their ceiling is. Far from it, in fact.

Out of everything regarding the Lakers potential deficiencies, team chemistry isn't a factor I'm worried about. The Lakers are facing a season of massive adjustments just in their starting five alone, from Steve Nash playing with the most talent he's ever had on a basketball court (all due respect to Marion, Amar'e and Joe Johnson, but we're talking about Kobe, Gasol and Howard here), to Dwight and Kobe getting less touches than they've ever gotten in their careers to Pau's role as a glorified Brad Miller-esque role as a facilitator and rebounder in the lane (that wasn't meant to be an insult..for real reals). However, these two biggest mitigating factors makes me think that these changes in on-court philosophy are miniscule compared to the task at hand: